TNAG-1136-FCO40-1416-Address-by-Sir-Edward-Youde--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-the-L-1982 — Page 14

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23.

Thirdly, the Secretary for Home Affairs, as a result of passing over responsibility for environmental

affairs to the new Secretary for Health and Welfare, will

be able to devote more attention to some of his other

responsibilities, particularly those relating to information and public relations and the monitoring of

public opinion. He will also be able to pay more attention to identifying people of the right calibre and experience to man our ever developing network of advisory boards and committees.

24.

Fourthly, the Secretary for City and New Territories Administration will be re-titled Secretary for District

Administration, in order to be consistent with the recent

standardisation of the titles of district staff throughout

the urban areas and the New Territories, but his schedule

of responsibilities will remain unchanged. His constant pre-occupation will, of course, be the nurturing of the

district board system and he, together with the Secretary

for Home Affairs, will be concerned with resolving any

immediate interface problems which may arise between district

boards and the various subject-oriented advisory boards and

committees, or between the Urban Council and the district

boards. In the longer term, he will eventually be

concerned with any modifications to the District Administration

Scheme which may be indicated by experience and longer term interface problems.

25.

Finally, there is now an obvious case for having

a multi-purpose presence in the United States and Europe

as well as in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, it has been

decided to expand, and upgrade the level of, our representation in the United States by opening a new office in New York.

The officer in charge will be known as the Hong Kong Trade

Commissioner in the United States. His responsibilities

will include keeping under review commercial and economic

developments in the United States, which may affect Hong Kong's interests, in concert with the Counsellor (Hong Kong

/Commercial.

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